Floating bubbles, charming and happy little princesses. Noisy! Giggles galore. Yes, charming.

Oh my! Libraries were certainly not like this when I was a prince. But that was long before Three Hills library Children's Programmer Susan Habermehl's time in hands-on library science, long before small town community libraries traded reading, writing, and research for excitement, learning experiments, and new experiences.

Case in point: Habermehl's Summer at the Library series for children under ten, two months of valuable and varied weekday learning opportunities cleverly disguised as interesting, fun, and engaging. 

Case in point: Last Wednesday's Princess and Frog session, based on the centuries-old European folk tale. Habermehl with a bubble machine before settling in to read Eric Blair's charming rendition to a bevy of costumed and charming princesses.

What would hair-in-bun Mrs. Crowley at my childhood library think? Sit and read. Don't talk. No laughing out loud! No time for 20 kids bouncing around my library every week all summer. Oh my goodness!

Habermehl, engaged by the library 14 years ago to work with children, engineered her programming from next to nothing to a sophisticated array of year-round learning in an engaging atmosphere that probably has dear ole Mrs. Crowley spinning in her grave.

Habermehl's offerings, capably assisted by summer volunteer Gemma Beeton, 15, who aspires to being a librarian, easily outstrip a throw-together grab bag of babysitting options. Bring your brain, kids, flex your imagination, think! Expect activities you'll seldom see at home: woodworking, medieval cooking, a Lego competition, theater, cupcake decorating. And more! Lots more.

The Habermehl approach permits "her baby" to welcome and engage children who might never come to a library. If that means building today for tomorrow's library users, it fits quite nicely as part of the grander scheme of modern library science.

Charming.